With the fourth quarter officially upon us, assessment becomes a hot topic. Over the next 9 weeks, you will be engaged in all kinds of assessment: Smarter Balance, DRAs, AVMR, Words Their Way, and SLOs. These assessments are important, but they can overshadow the assessments that are happening all the time in your classrooms. The assessments that take place on a daily basis, that inform your instruction, that tell you where you need to go with your students - these are the assessments that truly matter.

Assessment can be thought of in two ways: assessment for learning and assessment of learning. Assessment of learning is when we give an assessment that is not used to inform our instruction. It is a summative assessment that tells us where a student ends. Assessment of learning has an important place in education, however, it seems to take up a bigger space in our psyche than is necessary. It really doesn't guide our instruction and isn't very useful to us on a daily basis.

The assessment that is most important to your teaching and to your students' development as learners is the assessment that qualifies as assessment for learning. These include the baseline data you gather throughout the year when you use the DRA to determine reading groups, AVMR to determine math groups, and Words Their Way to determine what sorts students need. Assessments for learning are also are those formative assessments that happen on a daily basis that help you determine if your students mastered the lesson or concept, if there are misconceptions that need to be corrected, if you need to slow down or accelerate the curriculum. Assessment for learning is your opportunity to receive immediate feedback as an educator. It is your opportunity to answer the questions: What do my students know? What do they need to know? How will I know they know it? What will I do if they do or do not get it? There must be student work, student data at the heart of these answers. Here are a few videos from The Teaching Channel with ideas to consider incorporating into your daily routines in order to gather that data:

Exit Tickets: In this video the teacher uses an exit ticket during math to get immediate feedback on whether or not his students understand the skip counting pattern they are working on.

My Favorite No: In this video the teacher takes the warm up problem a step further by analyzing the student work on the spot and using the most interesting mistake as a quick teaching point with her class. This one definitely embodies the idea that mistakes are great learning experiences.

The Stoplight Method: In this video, the teacher uses a stop light visual to gather information from her students. Using sticky notes, they can post what they learned on the green light, any questions they have on the yellow light, and anything that stopped their learning goes on the red light. This quick routine helps the teacher understand what went well and helps her prepare for the next day's lesson.

Journals: In this video, the teacher demonstrates how she uses journals in the primary math classroom to record student thinking as they go. The students record strategies and practice new skills in the journal. The teacher can see immediately who is using what strategies and who needs support.

As you look forward to your final quarter with your current class, think about how you can build those assessments for learning into your day. There is still time to make great impacts with our kids before gathering the final data.

On a different note...

Check out Red Apple courses coming up:

AVMR 2: This is a 4-day course offered the week of April 20. It is recommended for 2nd-5th. You'll learn how to use the multiplication and division assessment as well as the place value assessment in your classrooms.

AVMR 2: This option is the week of May 18. Because it is not during the school day you can receive graduate credit.

PAGE Mindsets Training: This is a highly recommended course. You spend a week digging into equity issues at play in our educational system nationwide and locally. You'll leave with a new outlook on the value of our profession and the importance of our work in addressing equity issues in our nation.

Lucy Calkins: This course will be held the first week of June. You'll spend the week digging into the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing. You'll leave with a plan in place to launch your writing next fall. This would be great to sign up for with your grade level team!